FF is right. Its hard to compare because a part of the danger of smoking is the addiction.

Lot of not-very-sticky crap on the wall here.

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How about drinking a 64 oz soda everyday vs. playing football?

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What about Red Rover/Paintball concussions?

yeah, but unlike with football, you can do something productive and smoke at the same time.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Do you guys not understand what a thought experiment is?

It's impossible for FavreFan to be right if his reasoning is that my caveat that the person stops smoking sometime soon after high school is unrealistic. If someone were to play football for 40 years they'd be in worse shape than a smoker who smoked for 40 years too. We are comparing the damage done over equal time frames.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

But that's why it has no basis for comparison in reality. Which is all I was pointing out. We understand what a thought experiment is. Do you understand the difference between that and practical application(since we're apparently going down the condescending road again)?

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

"no basis for comparison in reality". I would guess that at least some people who smoke in high school quit sometime close to after graduation.
Yes. I don't get your reason for asking this though. I'm not the one that complained that my hypothetical situation was not likely to take place.

Either acknowledge the actual content of what I said or ignore it.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

My point is there is a purpose to the many of the dangerous activities that we all undertake. That includes football. Smoking serves no legit purpose.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I was not allowed to play football. What did I miss?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Yes, I do, you philthy whore

But when you remove addiction from smoking, it becomes different. So the shock value you're going for with your "thought experiment" is already comprimised.

It would be like doing a thought experiment on the dangers of driving but having a caveat that its on a closed course.

Then you missed my previous post where I outlined everything. It's not about you missing out, but rather, the people who play football gain:

-Teamwork
-Sportsmanship
-Exercise
-Discipline
-Occupying their time in a positive way
-Dealing with adversity
-Pride of winning games
-Entertainment

Smoking probably only provides some limited entertainment value.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

This seems to indicate that someone who smokes for 4 years would be addicted beyond help. I don't think that is true.
The closed course changes the experience but I'll allow this.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

There's no way to predict who will quit and who won't be able to. That's why I disagreed with your original statement that a strong case could be made that smoking is better than playing football from ages 14-18. I'm acknowledging your content and disagreeing with it. I guess I could've ignored it but it seemed like a pretty silly comparison given the very different natures of each one.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Every single sport/physical activity offers all of that.

Many of them without banging one's head into another

I don't disagree you get less positive value out of smoking, though the networking and cooperation things probably exist for smokers too. There also is the adversity of trying not to get caught by the cops and getting cigarettes.

I think you'd learn all of that on the chess team too though.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Better question - Would you rather let your kid play football from ages 14-18 or let him drink many beers in that time span?

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

No one is beyond help but 4 years is more than enough time to get addicted. Also I think the age you're talking about is unrealistic.

The closed course changes the experience but I'll allow this.[/quote]
Just like smoking with a definitive quit date would change the experience of smoking.

You seem pretty sure that it's unrealistic that someone would quit smoking at the age of 18 or 19 though. I guess the people I knew who did it aren't real people.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Hopefully BOTH if he's a REAL MAN

Right? Up high!

Transition could be interesting today. Or not.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

I never said any of that. All I said is you can't predict who will. Because of that it would be a pretty terrible idea to let your kid smoke instead of play football.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

With or without caffeine?
And it is called pop in the midwest, not soda you east coast wannabe!!!

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Smoke weed for 4 years or play football?

Bath Salts or Football

Is CTE worse than being a face eating zombie? ANSWER THE QUESTION BRICK?!?!

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It's like this is going in circles.

At least you acknowledged that someone could quit at the age of 18 or 19. Therefore, I don't think my hypothetical situation was that crazy.

Lets do another thought experiment. Let's say you could either have a billion dollars or eternal life. Which do you choose.

I take it your answer is that it's not realistic to have either because only a small amount of people have a billion dollars and no one has eternal life.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I smoked weed AND played football for 4 years, and it didn't fuck my brain................uh,um nevermind.

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"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." ~ H.L. Mencken

I'm not sure why you think I was denying you could quit. It wasn't hard to understand my posts. And I thought you were trying to have a realistic discussion, not talk about flying and being invisible and shit.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I'll take the billion and bank on the Mayan's being right

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How is it Mac and Spiegs can discuss this and even include callers without being demeaning, yelling at them etc?

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Elections have consequences.